Santa Brettski’s ‘Christmas in July’ ride

Brettski’s Christmas In July

by Brettski Claus

This ride report was originally published in the August 2009 issue of the Motorcycle Tourers club magazine, ‘Chain Lube’.


One of the good things about organizing a ride, or a social event where the participants need to make a firm commitment, and pay a deposit, is that you don’t have that nervous couple of hours before the event starts wondering if anyone at all is going to even show up. It’s sort of like a captive audience in some ways.

The Brettski’s Christmas In July event was my third event that I have put my name down for as organizer. The fact that long term members like H, David and Michael keep showing up must mean they were either really scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to do, or they thought the event had potential for success, or at the very least something so humorous that they would be able to tell it at dinner parties for many years to come as one of the worst events they put their names down for. Either way… their names were down on my list for this event… so I had numbers!

Rewind 24 hours

Saturday was spent amongst other things was spend searching the variety stores in Footscray for our Kris Kringle presents. I somehow recall the last time we had to find something for a KK present that the stores were full of ‘Quality’ knick-knack items that are simply perfect for this type of thing… how times have changed. It was a really difficult process, as the knick-knacks were more like knick craps. How times have changed.

I never intended to have anything to drink the night before. But, a habit is a habit… but I did manage to have an early night… well so I thought. About an hour after hitting the hay, I was somehow wide-awake. Many things were going through my head just like the night before an exam in high school… would my event succeed or will it fail? Pass, or passed in? Anyway, I decided since I wasn’t going to get to sleep any time soon, I may as well get up and wrap the presents that I was meant to before going too bed.

So, finally there was the light of day. Yep, the world was my stage, and I was prepared to meet the challenge head on. I had laid all the stuff out the night before in the lounge room. Yeah, I have been caught out before with not knowing where anything is that your last saw 15 month before. For once we were ahead of schedule. On the bikes, and heading up the street, when John asked me to have a look at his oil level. Grrrr… I couldn’t see anything in the gauge; so back home it was to get some oil. A mad hunt through the garage to find the oil that… you guessed it, was last used about 15 months before! There was only a trickle left in the bottle, but it must have been like the never-ending packet of Tim Tams as the oil level was suddenly at the top of the upper marker. Okay… off we went again. A quick call in to the petrol station, and finally we arrived. Not late, but certainly no time for a coffee that I was by now in so much need of as I didn’t have time to have one before leaving home, and only about 2 hours sleep… Hmmm.

We left South Yarra about five minutes past the advertised departure time. Doesn’t sound like much, but it could be at least 2 kms of wheel time in real terms. I was happy though when we were approaching Lilydale 15 minutes ahead of time. Phew… I have to explain here that timing was somewhat crucial as we only had an hour and a half to complete my planned journey before arriving at the Cuckoo Restaurant in Olinda. As previously mentioned, we also left Lilydale a little after the advertised departure time, but I figured we could shorten the stop off at the Silvan Reservoir. I had prepared an information sheet about the catchment, where the water comes from, where it goes, what fauna and flora was found throughout the catchment area, which ended up being quite well received. I was wondering if anyone was going to be interested, but I think it’s important to know where our water comes from, and how that itself has so many other implications on the wildlife and plant life’s survival. We had a bit of a walk too the upper viewing area where we couple see the water level in the reservoir before we were on our way again.

I was keeping my eye on the time as we headed up the back end of Mount Dandenong towards Olinda, and decided we would be cutting it too fine to take some twisties in before lunch, so I figured a slight change in plan, and have lunch before the twisties… Hmmm. Twisty roads on a full stomach?

We made our way into the Cuckoo Restaurant, and was seated at our long table on the lower level, right next to where the band was arranged. I thought that this would be interesting as I heard rumours that they get you to participate in their act if you are anywhere near them. I was relieved when I arrived that everyone had taken all the seating near the stage end of the table, and I was ‘forced’ to be at the furthest end of the table… Phew!

Before long, we were heading off to make a start on the food. You’ve gotta love ‘all you can eats’. No one is disappointed, and there was a great range to be had. The old girl at the savory was also a treat, informing Michael and I that she was banished for touching some elderly guy on the butt that she fancied!

After an unhealthy amount of food, I figured I was now adequately bloated enough to resemble Father Christmas with his fat belly, so out came his sack, and everyone had a turn to feel around in it for something they liked. It was a lovely sight seeing all the kiddies unwrapping their presents, and squeals of joy filled the air. Soon enough, the band was playing, and cow bells were ringing before we were persuaded to join in with the sing-a-longs of clapping hands, and words like ‘Fro-zen’ to get a similar pronunciation.

Finally, after all the festivites of lunch, and a good laugh or two, we headed downhill along Mount Dandenong Tourist Road for some twisties, and then up again along Mountain Highway. Unfortunately, the weekend traffic made the excitement a little lost as we found ourselves barely warming the edges of our tyres around corners while stuck behind slow moving sightseers. Finally, after getting away from the terrible stop sign intersection in Sassafras, we climbed our way back over the top of Mount Dandenong for the final leg of the ride.

Thank you to everyone who came along and made the day a great success. Even though the riding was less, and a lot slower than our usual, it’s nice once in a while to be a bit more relaxed and enjoy the scenery.

Brettski Claus

Ride Photos:

Skills

Posted on

19 July 2009

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